USCGC Campbell (WPG-32) - Wartime Duties

Wartime Duties

On 5 September 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed American neutrality in the conflict and ordered the formation of a neutrality patrol by the Navy to report and track any belligerent air, surface, or submarine activity in the waters off the United States east coast and in the West Indies. The Navy determined that its destroyers were not capable of extended cruises in the North Atlantic and asked that the Coast Guard conduct these patrols. The Coast Guard assigned the Campbell to conduct the first Coast Guard neutrality patrol, which were referred to as "Grand Banks Patrols." Campbell would perform five such cruises, each lasting approximately two weeks, the last such cruise returning to New York on 29 January 1940.

When prepared for convoy escort duty prior to her sailing for Portugal, workers at the New York Navy Yard added three 3-inch 51 caliber guns in-line, aft. Her two signal guns that were directly forward of the bridge were replaced with a single 3-inch 50 caliber gun. Her two 5-inch 51 caliber main batteries remained unchanged. Campbell was the first Secretary Class cutter to transfer for duty with the Navy (on 1 July 1941) and the first to sail on escort of convoy duties when she escorted Convoy HX-159 which sailed on 10 November 1941. The Campbell's permanent station was changed from Stapleton to Boston in February, 1942, and she later exchanged a 5-inch (130 mm) for a 3-inch (76 mm) gun, installed 6 more 20 mm guns, substituted 2 "K" guns for "Y" guns and had splinter protection built around three gun decks, bridge and wheel house.

Campbell, along with Spencer, were the first US warships equipped with HF/DF, pioneered by the Royal Navy for the fight against the German U-boat fleet. The two cutters had been selected by the Navy to serve as test ships to gain experience with HF/DF, using British FH3 systems (carrying the U.S. designation Type DAR) installed in the American shipyard in Northern Ireland under the supervision of experts from the Admiralty Signals Establishment. As the Royal Navy had already discovered, HF/DF was an important part of combatting the threat posed to Allied convoys by U-boats, and the experience with the interim DAR equipment provided impetus to the U.S. development of its own Type DAQ system.

When the British and Canadians assumed full responsibility for convoys in the North Atlantic in mid-1943, the US took control of all mid-Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, where the cutters faced a constant threat from U-boats and the Luftwaffe. Convoys were especially vulnerable once they cleared Gibraltar. Campbell sailed as an escort for Mediterranean convoys in 1943–1944 and saw considerable action against both U-boats and aircraft, with two incidents in particular of note.